SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — No big names and nothing fancy — just good, old- fashioned, hard-nosed defense, which serves as the calling card for the Marshwood High School girls basketball team.

It's a recipe for success that has met with mixed results, but on Friday the Hawks made it work against rival Noble, claiming a 52-40, Class A win.

Marshwood (5-7), which is in the hunt for a playoff berth, jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, led 26-18 at the half and then widened that margin to as much as 17 (38-21) in the third quarter, and 19 in the fourth frame.

“Coach kind of got us a little riled up in a timeout,” said Marshwood senior guard Alli Schoff. “He told us we have to keep pushing it to them, we have to keep playing the way we play. We really didn't really show that in the first half. We had to come out stronger and I think we really got that done on defense. We were just all over the place and we were turning that into our offense.”

The game was the third in a quadruple-header, which started with the JV games and ended with the boys' varsity game. The Noble girls wore pink socks as part of the second annual Coaches vs. Cancer game in which the two rivals have a friendly challenge to see who can raise the most money to fight cancer. The challenge will conclude with the second quadruple-header on Feb. 8 at Noble.

Marshwood never trailed in this one, using some good fullcourt pressure to disrupt the Knights. The Hawks scored the first seven points of the game on four points from Megan McLean and three from Schoff, who led the team in scoring with 11 points. Hanna Philbrick added eight points off the bench, while Jill Gori and Hannah Ferguson had seven each and Gianna Riccardi tossed in six.

The Knights scored their only points of the quarter on a three-point play by Caitlin Carignan at 1:29.

The closest Noble got was one point in the second quarter on a Chandler Waterman 3-pointer, which made it 11-10 1:53 in.

Marshwood quickly pushed the lead to eight (19-11) on two Abby Hyson free throws, two inside buckets by Ferguson and Johnna Kashmer's shot in the lane.

“We changed our presses up on them and that worked,” said Marshwood coach Lee Petrie. “We had different kids step up. ... We really mixed up what we were trying to do. That's kind of how we play. We don't depend on one person.”

Marshwood led by eight at the break and widened that gap to 17 with a 7-0 run in the third quarter, including four points from Gori.

The Hawks, which outscored Noble 16-8 in the third, held steady after three quarters at 42-26.

“They put some tall girls on the front of the press and it made passing harder,” Waterman said. “Even though we were down, it seemed back and forth. I think at one point they got on a run and were getting layups and we weren't getting anything.”

The Hawks twice got the lead to 19 in the final quarter, both times on baskets by Philbrick.

Noble scored the final seven points of the game to make it respectable. Danielle Logan converted an inside hoop, Kelly buried a 3-pointer and then rolled in a deuce.

“We're working hard,” said Noble coach John Coffin. “What's good about this group is that they never give up, no matter what's going on. They're playing hard right to the very end.”

Noble plays Monday at Gorham, while Marshwood hosts Sanford the same day.